Plans to create two new cycling superhighways linking outer parts of London have been given the green light.

The new routes, which are set for completion in mid 2016, will link Barking and Acton while a north to south route will run between King’s Cross and Elephant and Castle.

The number of Londoners cycling to work has more than doubled in a decade.

With more than 170,000 journeys each day, bikes make up 24 per cent of rush-hour traffic in central London.

The move follows a series of cycling fatalities and calls for better road protection for cyclists.

But motorists are warning the scheme could cause traffic chaos and some businesses have branded the project “unworkable”.

Steve McNamara from the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association and Grant Incles, a solicitor specialising in cycle related injury cases, joined Headline London to discuss the future of cycling in the capital.